Founded in 1993 by a bipartisan group of Members of Congress, we are a global nonprofit organization dedicated to the principle that access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right. We develop, inspire, and connect leaders in the movement to end hunger, and advocate for public policies that will create a food secure world.

Our Mission

We develop, inspire, and connect leaders in the movement to end hunger, and advocate for public policies to create a food-secure world.

Our HisTory

Mickey Leland and Bill Emerson. Photo credit: Marty LaVor

In 1983, U.S. Representatives Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.), Mickey Leland (D-Texas) and Tony Hall (D-Ohio) formed the House Select Committee on Hunger to find sustainable solutions to national and international hunger and poverty. Rep. Leland chaired the committee until his death during a famine relief mission to the Horn of Africa in 1989.

In 1993, the House allowed a number of select committees to expire including the House Select Committee on Hunger. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Hall, responded by embarking on a 22-day fast, an act that garnered bipartisan support to form the Congressional Hunger Center as a nonprofit organization to help ensure Congress continued to address hunger. Representative Bill Emerson (R-Mo.) joined Rep. Hall as the first co-chairs of the Congressional Hunger Center's Board of Directors.

our supporters

We couldn’t do our work alone. We’re grateful to our funders for the generous financial and in-kind support that makes our work possible.